Creator
John Muir
Recipient
[Theodore Roosevelt]
Transcription
Martinez, April 21, 1908.
[in margin: [Acnd?] 4-21-08]
Dear Mr. President:
I hate to augment the monstrous load of national cares you are carrying, even to the extent of reading another short letter on the Hetch Hetchy question lately reopened by Secretary Garfield.
None of the proponents of the destructive Hetch Hetchy scheme seems to me anything like what you Mr President call a decent American citizen, able to represent fairly either San Francisco or the United States.
Damming Lake Eleanor would do but little to harm the park. It would make a magnificent reservoir, & with the many other available basins on Cherry Creek, the large Tuolumne tributary
to the north of the Park boundary would according to my best information & belief supply San Francisco & the Bay Cities for a century or so with abundance of water even purer than that of Hetch Hetchy, which drains the great camp-grounds of the Park.
The special pleaders for the Hetch Hetchy scheme now in Washington seem to me not a whit better than the graft lawyers of San Francisco. They are said to belong to Mr Phelan, who with a few other capitalists has long been engaged in miserable dollarish squabbles with the Spring Valley Water Company.
Devoutly praying our glorious Yosemite park may be preserved for the highest good of all America & the world, I am, dear President,
faithfully yours,
John Muir
Location
Martinez [Calif.]
Date Original
1908 Apr 21
Source
Original letter dimensions unknown.
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to [Theodore Roosevelt], 1908 Apr 21." (1908). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 5363.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/5363
Resource Identifier
muir17_0435-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 17, Image 0435
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
Copyright Status
Copyrighted
Copyright Statement
The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish or exhibit them, see http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/Fees-and-Forms-.html
Owning Institution
National Archives. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Copyright Holder
Muir-Hanna Trust
Pages
2 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
